No Early Exit From Prison for Oscar Pistorius Due to his Prosthetic Legs

Oscar Pistorius in the Pretoria High Court on October 17, 2014, in Pretoria, South Africa.Getty Images

Despite disgraced Olympian Oscar Pistorius hoping to get an early exit from jail after serving ten months, an impediment to his early release is the electronic tagging device not fitting inside his prosthetic leg.

The device has to be attached physically to the offender's ankle. We cannot use it on false limbs which could be left somewhere static while the offender goes missing.

- Prison sources

Sources at Mail Online reveal that prison managers have told Pistorius that he does not qualify for their tagging scheme, as the device cannot be properly monitored when fixed to a prosthetic leg.

"The device has to be attached physically to the offender's ankle. We cannot use it on false limbs which could be left somewhere static while the offender goes missing," prison sources told the Daily Mail.

Fixing the tags to an offender's wrist is not an option as they can be easily taken off.

The pilot scheme of tagging offenders was introduced by South Africa's Correctional Services Department in April.

Pistorius has allegedly told his defence team that he should qualify for home detention under the scheme as he has no previous convictions for violence.

He was hopeful that he could spend the remainder of his five-year sentence at his uncle's home in the city's Waterkloof suburb, where he had been staying throughout his seven-month trial.

Pistorius had both of his legs amputated as a child and uses specially adapted prosthetic legs for mobility.

He is presently placed in a cell in the hospital wing of Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru prison.

His cell is reportedly two metres by three metres in size with a small cupboard, a bed, a washbasin and a toilet. He has no TV or access to a mobile phone, and shares a shower room with another prisoner in the adjoining cell.

Pistorius was instructed to remain quiet after he initially spent several days crying and reportedly sobbing himself to sleep.

The news emerges as South African prosecutors confirm that they will be allowed to appeal Pistorius's manslaughter conviction and five-year sentence on 9 December.